Castro Valley, California.
Typical home $1,088,972 (+1.2% in a year), asking rent $3,011 (+7.4%). San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,775 (+94%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,327 +1%
- $1,075,646$1,088,972 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $51,243 +5%
- $1,037,730$1,088,972 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Castro Valley$5,716
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 72 years.
Typical home values in Castro Valley, CA rose 1.2% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Asking rents in Castro Valley, CA rose 7.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Castro Valley runs $4,576/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $5,181 in May 2024.
That is $7,587 a month against $3,011 rent: a $5,716 mortgage payment, plus $705 property tax and $1,166 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Castro Valley
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$7,587
- Renting$3,011
- Mortgage only$5,716
Property tax · $705/mo 0.78% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Alameda County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,166/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Castro Valley, Alameda County, California
Castro Valley, in Alameda County, had 66,441 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $142,779 a year and half less, against $129,367 across Alameda County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 72% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 28% are rented. Unemployment in Alameda County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Castro Valley is a community in Alameda County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run above the county's. Residents tend to be older than in many American towns, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Homes here cost a good deal to buy or rent, and fewer people live below the poverty line than is common nationally.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, as well as in professional and business services, shops and manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Castro Valley are Castro Valley Unified, Eden Medical Center and Baywood Court. Commutes are fairly long, and a good number of workers do their jobs from home.
Things to do. San Francisco is a longer drive away, and it holds Golden Gate Park, a large public garden, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Oracle Park, a baseball stadium, is also a longer drive away. Winters are mild and cool rather than harsh, with modest rainfall across the year, so outings are possible in most seasons.
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- 22,021households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 21%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Alameda County had 783,094 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 59° and lows near 43°; warmest in September, with highs near 77° and lows near 58°. About 16 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Hayward Air Terminal weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Castro Valley
- Castro Valley UnifiedSchool district807FTE
- Eden Medical CenterGeneral hospital796FTE
- Baywood CourtRetirement homes with nursing care210
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores151
- Sutter Bay Medical FoundationHealthcare151
- Trader Joe's 0084 Castro ValleyGrocery store146
- Villa FairmontPsychiatric and substance abuse hospitals125
- Willow Rock CenterPsychiatric and substance abuse hospitals90
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,424 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Landslidesrelatively high in parts of Castro ValleyRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Castro Valley’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Alameda County and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
Castro Valley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Castro Valley$1,088,972
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Castro Valley listings, and the typical home goes pending in 17 days — the market is heating up.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Castro Valley18.79%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Castro Valley17
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Castro Valley81
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Castro Valley34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Castro Valley$1,186,771
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Castro Valley104.63%
Zip codes with a Castro Valley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Castro Valley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Castro Valley
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 94546 | Castro Valley | 44,855 | $2,879 | $1,006,862 |
| 94552 | Castro Valley | 14,506 | $4,004 | $1,364,641 |